Ypulse Youth Website Profile: Sweety High
Posted by meredith on 03-05-2010
Today’s Ypulse Youth Website Profile is on tween social world “Sweety High”
What it is: “Sweety High” has two main components. The main one is a “social world for girls” that immerses tween users in the virtual hallways of a fantasy high school where they can create characters, upload video blogs and buy an assortment of virtual goods via the “Sweety Store” with currency that can be earned, purchased or won through contests. The other part of the equation is the flashier entertainment offering: “Sweety,” a clique lit-inspired, professionally produced web series (see trailer here). A premium content package is available for a monthly subscription fee.
Who it’s for: A closed community for girls 9-13 (Update: Site co-founder Veronica Zelle has offered to give me a site tour. Look for further updates to this review) To keep it that way the site teamed up with services NetModerator and Privo to monitor for age-appropriateness. Users’ profiles are only visible to their friends, there are parental controls on younger users’ accounts, and the site provides lots of safety tips, even offering a series PSAs on YouTube to teach girls about cyber-safety.
What works: Premise aside (see below), there’s no denying that a lot of effort went into the making of “Sweety.” — both in production value and talent. It’s nice to see a diverse cast and tweens might even recognize a face or two . If there was any clear takeaway from Kidscreen, it was that it takes this type of quality content to get recognized in the increasingly crowded tween entertainment space. It’s a smart, thoughtful strategy for getting girls to want to enter your world in the first place. Also, lots of bonus points go to the site’s creators for putting such a strong, direct emphasis on safety and taking the extra step of getting the messaging out there via PSAs that feature actual tweens. Very cool.
Challenges: I’ve never been the biggest fan of the clique lit genre and the trailer for “Sweety” and the tone it sets for the social world struck me as slightly cringeworthy. Lots of acronyms and slang thrown around and the main focus appears to be on popularity, boys and fashion. Of course, not every site for girls needs to have wide appeal, but I hope full-length episodes see these “best friends forever” diving into some deeper waters. The whole perfect blonde-led “in crowd” set up also felt a little dated (like “Mean Girls” but not self-aware) and not exactly in synch with that whole relatable trend we’ve seen lately. I wonder how much tweens can do on the site without paying and whether those free features would intrigue them enough to approach Mom and Dad for the subscription fee. Will the premium content prove a powerful enough draw for full member, or will the free gaming/quiz options, trailers and clips on YouTube suffice?
For more coverage of the tween space, check out the Ypulse Tweens Channel
Categorized under: Tweens
March 5th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Meredith… You should get your facts straight before you write. There is so much more to SweetyHigh than just the series… Thank god the kids love the first web-series…BTW it wasn’t made for you.